When I was young it was “Where were you on the day JFK died?” Then John Lennon and Princess Di.

But now the thing our grandchildren will be asking us is: what we were doing on May 20, 2020.

Well, not much, obviously, but you can easily find out more by consulting the phones that now track our lives.

Diaries were mostly obsolete in 2020, but mine actually had an entry for May 20 as we had tickets to see Macbeth, Shakespeare’s gruesome tale of corrupt leaders who slowly implode because of the blood on their hands.

The play was cancelled, obviously.

My phone also tells me that I got up very early on that day, and was on my bike before 7am to complete the allowed exercise for the day. It had never been more important to stay fit.

Later on I took photos of my wife in the garden with our daughter, whom we brought home at the start of lockdown because she was clinically vulnerable, and she was soon put on furlough anyway, because of the pandemic. Soon afterwards she was made redundant for the same reason, and spent months trying to get a new job.

Meanwhile, our son, who teaches music in face-to-face lessons, was working overtime, trying to convert his business to an online one, at the same time studying hard for a degree course that eventually had to be completed a year late.

Around that time we also gave up hope of his wedding going ahead in that year. It was scheduled for June 2020, but he and his fiancee would eventually have to wait until September 2021.

When it finally arrived, we had a wonderful day, apart from there were two empty chairs, belonging to much-loved aunts who passed away during the delay.

One died last Easter, and I only ever got to see her again through the window of a care home.

We arranged a Zoom meeting with the other on May 12, 2020, and took screenshots, knowing it might be the last time we would ever see her.

And it was.

That week we also organised a Zoom meeting with other family members, including two brothers who were not only locked down, but also bound by extra shielding, so we didn’t see them properly for weeks.

We were joined online by members of the extended family, and a key topic of conversation was PPE in the NHS - or rather the lack of it.That’s because I have no fewer than three nephews who are paramedics, all based at different ambulance stations, and for some time they all faced the deadly virus without protection.

Yes, lockdown was hard, but as a family we felt lucky because it could have been far worse, as indeed it was for tens of thousands of others. And because NHS staff and other key workers were under immense strain, making huge sacrifices.

Even the Queen.

Keeping to the rules was the least any decent person would do in the circumstances.